American Humanist Association (AHA)

Information

The American Humanist Association advocates progressive values and equality for humanists, atheists and freethinkers in the United States. We work to promote humanism--the idea that you can be good without a god.

AHA Updates

Humanist Press is the publishing house of the American Humanist Association, providing material for the humanist/freethought/atheist market since 1995.

With the largest print book seller in the United States now selling more ebooks than paper books, it was time the freethought movement invested in the future of publishing so that we can remain relevant and accessible to readers in the U.S. and around the globe.

With new ebooks becoming available on a bi-monthly basis, Humanist Press will have a regularly expanding catalog of interest to atheist and agnostic humanists everywhere. Visit HumanistPress.com

Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin.

On this website you can find all sorts of information about Charles Darwin and the International Darwin Day Foundation. If you are hosting a Darwin Day event, you can post information about it on our events listing. You can also locate Darwin Day programs near you by searching our events section.

Let Humanism Ring! The American Humanist Association is pleased to announce that its 73rd Annual Conference will be held June 5-8, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Join hundreds of humanists, atheists and freethinkers in Philadelphia for a four-day celebration of humanism! The American Humanist Association will feature informative lectures, book signings, celebrity guests, networking opportunities, child care, fun activities and more!

Book your room early by calling the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel at 1-800-325-3535 (mention the American Humanist Association) or visit the AHA’s Personalized Reservation Page to get the special rate of $169 per night (subject to taxes). Rates increase after May 5, 2014 so reserve now!

Do you vote in a church? Tell the AHA's Appignani Humanist Legal Center about it

By Bill Burgess

The AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center is investigating the use of churches and other houses of worship as polling places.

Americans vote in a wide variety of buildings in their local neighborhoods. Schools, libraries, fire stations and other municipal buildings are spread throughout communities, allowing us to vote near where we live. Sometimes, churches are designated as polling places as well. When this is the case, it raises significant concerns about the venue for the exercise of one of our most important democratic rights and the effect it has on those who are not religious. Recent studies have shown that the nature of the polling place affects the psychology of voters, influencing the way the vote on relevant issues.

If your local polling place is a church, the legal center would like to hear from you. In particular, we’d like to know the following about your polling place:

1. Is there an available secular alternative location in your neighborhood that could serve as a polling place?

2. Is there any evidence of politicking by the church directed at voters at the polling place, such as signs expressing opinions on social issues? Are church members on premises on Election Day speaking to voters or handing out literature?

3. Is the part of the church which voters access neutral in appearance or does it contain significant religious elements which have not been covered up? Are there any pictures of how the church looks on Election Day?

4. Have you registered a complaint with the local government about their choice of the church as a polling place? If so, what was their response?

5. How widespread is the use of churches as polling places in your community? Are they overrepresented, given the availability of secular alternatives? Do they represent the religious diversity of your community, or is any one religion or denomination overrepresented?

6. Have local politicians or government workers made any comments on the choice of churches as polling places? If not, has anyone asked them about their motives?

7. If a voter objects to voting in church, is he or she permitted to vote at an alternate secular location?

8. Is the church complying with your state’s election laws?

In exercising our fundamental right to vote, we deserve the chance to vote in a neutral setting that is welcoming to the entire community, not just those who follow the religion of the majority. If you feel that your polling place does not meet this standard, we would like to hear from you.

To contact the legal center about this (or any other matter), please send me an email at legal@americanhumanist.org. To keep up with the legal center’s ongoing activities, please visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/humanist.legal

In this month’s podcast, Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview Rabbi Binyamin Biber about his services to the community as a Humanist Celebrant and Humanist Chaplain at American University. Also, we highlight the AHA’s recent “Naughty” Awareness Campaign, aimed to raise awareness of discrimination against nonbelievers in America.

An AHA Action Alert has been issued to contact your senators in opposition to the removal of constitutional rights in the Defense Appropriations Bill. An easy online form has been created for public use.

On Thursday, December First, World AIDS Day, we remember the tens of millions of lives lost to the 30-year-tragedy that is the AIDS epidemic. Since 1988, World AIDS Day has been a commemoration of those lost to this epidemic, those living with HIV/AIDS, and those supporting them. Today, we stand with the many Americans and those abroad who are living with HIV and those who work tirelessly to comfort them.

Two years ago, the American government lifted its ban on funding of syringe needle exchanges. Last year, President Obama crafted America’s first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Vatican changed their prevention stance, stating condoms should be allowed for HIV prevention, and The New England Journal of Medicine announced that a prophylaxis of an anti-retro-viral drug (Truvada) was shown to be 73 percent effective in HIV prevention in those who were highly adherent. Though there have been these and many more recent reinforcements of hope in our struggle, we must remember and fight towards the ultimate goals -- 100% prevention, the most effective treatment and a cure.

We must continue to fight for HIV-positive Americans without access to quality health care or lifesaving medication. The patchwork American system of HIV treatment has multiple inadequacies. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which provides free or low cost anti-HIV medication to all Americans, is in a massive fiscal crisis with over 4,000 people in 9 states on waiting lists for their live-saving medication. It is our advocacy, support, unity and attention that will help address this challenge.

We must fight for HIV-negative Americans whose lack of access to HIV prevention and education may make contracting HIV inevitable. With parts of America having virtually no on-the-ground prevention efforts for high-risk groups, more resources are needed for HIV prevention. And every year, more Americans contract HIV, with well over 60,000 yearly transmissions.

We must engage, empathize with and inspire those whose sense of reason is overshadowed by lore and superstition. Medically sound safer sex education must replace emotionally wrapped abstinence-only education. And we must always promote those treatments that are empirically proven effective, and work to dissipate treatment and prevention myths.

We must think and act globally towards universal access to life-saving medication and the extension of all benefits of HIV prevention and treatment to everyone in the world.

To end the scourge of HIV, our greatest tools are Prevention, Treatment, Education Action and Compassion.

TAKE ACTION:

…Alone or with your Humanist and Atheist Group…

Promote HIV testing and get tested yourself. Knowledge is power.

Participate in a local HIV/AIDS charity such as an AIDS Walk. The money raised by these efforts save lives.

Encourage your local government to sponsor condom distribution and clean needles programs. The federal funding ban has been lifted, so your locality can apply for federal money for these efforts.

Challenge local abstinence-only education and rhetoric. These programs do not work, are dangerous and are grounded in religiously biased ignorance.

Volunteer to help HIV community service organizations. Over one million Americans are living with HIV and your volunteer hours make a world of difference.

Get involved in state and federal HIV Prevention and Treatment Advocacy. Find out more information about the domestic AIDS Drug Assistance Program crisis and what you can do help.

Let this World AIDS Day serve as a call to action to fight towards a day where no one is forced to live with HIV -- a day where the AIDS epidemic serves only as a reminder of the destruction of ignorance and inaction. Let today offer us humility in our common humanity, gratitude for each other and a deep hope that one day soon, AIDS will be only a distant memory.

"It seems that with better science, with government safety nets, better health, and longer life expectancy, there is less fear and uncertainty in people's daily lives. As a result there is less of a need for religion to help people cope with the feeling that they have little control over their lives."